Introducing our new Off the Page Design Team Members

We are thrilled to welcome two wonderful new designers to the Patch family!!! I am sure they will inspire and challenge you with their amazing talent. Join me to Megan & Sarah.

"Hi, I'm Sarah! I live in Wellington with my husband Shanan, my high school sweetheart. We've been in Wellington for almost three years but were born in Invercargill and spent 8 years living and studying in Dunedin. We have two extremely spoiled cats, a Balinese named Gabriel and a Silver Shaded Persian named Luna. Needless to say, all of my creations carry a little bit of extra "embellishment" in the form of cat hair!

I've been crafty and creative my whole life. As a child I distinctly remember saving the foil from easter eggs and cutting it into tiny pieces to store in a tic tac box and use as glitter! As an adult, with a whole drawer full of glitter, I often look around and wonder at how excited that little girl would be to play in my craft room! I love paper crafting and stamping and make time every day to indulge my obsession! I also enjoy crochet, sewing and quilting, jewellery design and cake decorating. When I'm not creating I'm usually curled up in my favourite chair with a book - I love everything from a sappy romance to a great mystery or horror novel. My favourite authors are Nora Roberts, Janet Fitch, Dean Koontz and Stephen King.

I'm looking forward to becoming a part of the Scrappin' Patch family and stretching my creative wings with some awesome products - hopefully inspiring you along the way!"

And some lovely examples of Sarah's work..








INTRODUCING MEGAN.....

Hi!
My name is Megan Gourlay, and I live 5 mins north of Christchurch, in Woodend, with my husband Forbes - yes that really is his first name!, and our two fur babies, Dougal and McKenzie.
Im a bit of an old fashioned chick, in that I love anything heritage, whether Im scrapping layouts, or reading etc. So my scrapping does tend to feature heritage layouts at times.
I started off making cards originally back in 2001 and did nothing else for a long time. Some years later I ventured into OTP, and layouts came along a long time later. OTP remain one of my favourite things to scrap!
I love distressing things, inking and stamping so you will find a lot of my OTP or layouts tend to incorporate those things. I love creating girly things, and find items for boys more of a challenge, but Im quite stubborn by nature, so I don't give in!
Ive been on the DT at Artistic Document, which is based in Australia for the last 12months, and I also have been teaching classes for the past three years.
Im delighted to be invited to join the DT at 'the Patch', and look forward to showing you some OTP tricks and hopefully teach some classes!

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Scrap Tech Tueday - Corner Punches

Hi Ladies and welcome to Scrap Tech Tuesday.

This week i wanted to show you an inexpensive way to make your own diecut shapes using your corner punches. With the popularity of spellbinders and other dies this is a poor mans version that will still give you some great results. i used 2 different punches to show you the different effect that you can get and then used both on a layout.

Here are the 2 punches that i used - but any that you have will work too...



Firstly i cut out some circle shapes- the bigger the circle the easier it is and the better effect with some punches but have a play ...
You have to line up your punch- looking at the bottom of the punch as you line it up - just above the edge of your circle and punch hard. This is the result.



Then watching very carefully on the bottom of your punch line it up as best you can just above the edge and to the right of your last punch...


Once you have punched the whole way round it will look like this - with triangles between each punch - these can be popped out ..



The finished diecut shape



I then used a different punch to do some smaller circles in a different colour.



I then created this layout using the three punches circles...this is my second daughter Ella who has the KEMP hair (my maiden name) hence the wordplay in the title.



Products Used

Prima Botanical Paper - Sweetheart
Prima Alphas
Prima Flowers
Bazzill Cardstock
Pinecone Ink
Kaisercraft Ribbon
Creative Imaginations- Leaf paper

i hope that you will give this technique a try...

Happy scrapping

Francine

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Photo Editing in Picasa 3

Hi Girls,

Adrienne has had a couple of queries in the shop of how I change the "look" of my photo's. I used a free photo editing programme called Picasa 3. If you are looking for a photo editing programme, the download for Picasa 3 is http://picasa.google.com/. It's really easy to work with, and my recommendation is just to play around with a couple of photo's and all the goodies it has to offer.

You can change a normal photo to black / white or sepia / or even newsprint, and those nice soft shadows around the photo's, you can do it all using this programme.

So here is the photo which was uploaded directly into Picasa. You will see there are three sections,
Basic Fixes, Tuning, Effects.



In Basic Fixes you can crop your photo, straighten the photo, remove red eye, add texts, colour contrasts and also using the "Magic Button" - I;m feeling lucky - this button just automatically fixes the photo. Below all I clicked is "Feeling Lucky" and you can already see the difference in the brightness of the photo.



Next I go to the second panel, "Tuning" where i play around with the Fill Light, Highlight and shadows, and by moving the little indicator you can change the colour of your picture completely. You can see already from the initial picture the picture is darker,



Here I moved the "highlights" indicator towards the right and it brightens it up but still keeps the shadows which you have already changed.



If you go to the last panel "Effects" - this is where you can change your photo into black & white, sepia, sharpen the photo, tint it, saturate bright colours etc. In the photo below I have clicked the "Warmly Button" which brings out the natural colours of the photo, it seems to give it earthy colours.



and in the last photo I have changed the same photo into black & white. What I normally do is if I want a black and white photo - I change it to black and white first and then go to the second panel and play around with the Brightness, Highlights & shadows and you will be thrilled with the results.



Here are a couple of other photo's which I have played around with






My best advise is just play around to see what you like, I hope you have the above tutorial helpful and let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Editing

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Prima Inspiration with Robbi

I know I am jumping out of turn ..... but I wanted to share with you some layouts I have created for 2 classes I run down here last weekend.

There was 14 Ladies in Dunedin on Saturday and 12 Ladies in Balclutha on Sunday, so a full weekend of scrapping....



Goodies Used were-
Prima - Botanical - Beloved
Kaisercraft - Chanteuse - Vivo
Tim Holtz - Mini Bird Cage and Bird Die
Tim Holtz - Hardware Findings Die
Collections Elements - Butterflies
Bazzill - Cinnabar
Handmade flowers using Tim Holtz - Tattered Florals Die
Misc Paper Roses

And this is the 2nd Layout



Goodies Used for this Layout were:-

Prima - Madeline - Pistachio
Bazzil - Teal
Tim Holtz - Hardware Findings Die
Graphic 45 - Once upon a springtime postcard
Handmade embellieshments - envelope, tag, flowers
MIsc - Flowers, lace, trinket pin and metal butterfly, doilie, book paper

and here is a photo of one very happy scrapper (Peewee) who was at the Balclutha class


and I'm sure shes happier than she looks!

NOTE If anyone would like to come to a class either in Dunedin or in Balclutha please PM me and I will sort you with the date of the next classes.

Thank You to "Tanya Watson" for her inspiration for the 1st layout, it was a nice easy layout for the Ladies to get their heads around before tacking the harder "Memories" one

Happi Scrappin
Robbi

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Wednesday Inspiration with Hannah

Hi girls,

It's time to post some more inspiration, and today I want to share 2 layouts featuring Crate Paper "School Spirit". These papers are obviously fantastic for school layouts, but they are very versatile and can be used for other themes as well (as you will see).

In this first layout, I teamed some of the School Spirit papers with Kraft cardstock and Prima autumn leaves to scrap this photo of Tyler at the "Amazing Maze in Maize" last Easter. I cut the "Geometry" paper into coloured blocks - the colours were perfect! In keeping with our "Along the Lines" theme for the month of May, I've used a black journalling pen to doodle a fun & easy lined border around the edge of my page.



Products used:
Crate Paper School Spirit "Geometry"
Crate Paper School Spirit "Grade Card"
Kraft cardstock
Prima "Say it in Pearls" black fern
American Craft Thickers "Bones"
Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type Alphas
Prima autumn leaves
Prima flowers
buttons
journalling pen
ink

Here I've used the School Spirit papers to scrap more of those school photos! I wanted to capture how much Ethan has changed over the last 5 years, so I used a photo from each school year to show the transition. I cut out numbers from the "Chalkboard" paper to represent each year. I utilised the grid paper to keep with the "Along the Lines" theme, and also added strips or "lines" of overlapping patterned papers and tape across the middle of the page.



Products used:
Crate Paper School Spirit "Grade Card"
Crate Paper School Spirit "Study Hall"
Crate Paper School Spirit "Chalkboard"
Basic Grey Basics "Kraft Poll"
Sassafrass Lass Me Likey "Refreshed"
Heidi Swapp tape
old book page
misc. buttons and charm
My Minds Eye Life Stories "Team" journal card
Prima Alphabet Stickers "Tan"
journalling pen
ink
corner punch

*** EXTRA, EXTRA! ***

Yesterday a few of you were talking about challenges and how you couldn't wait for the June ones (next week), so I am offering a little "extra" challenge. Hopefully you've been inspired by these layouts, so I'm challenging anybody who wants to play along to create a layout based on this post. You can scraplift one of my layouts, use one as a "sketch", use the same colour palette, take inspiration from the titles, or create your own "recipe" based on some of the ingredients I have used.

Upload to this folder in the gallery: http://scrappinpatch.co.nz/coppermine/t ... ?album=418

I will offer a small RAK, and I will randomly draw a winner on Sunday afternoon.

Happy scrapping!

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Tim Holtz- New Products

You may have seen that Adrienne has recently uploaded some of Tim's new goodies to the shop
I have been lucky enough to have a play with some of them and have created these layouts for you....

this 1st one is of the lovely Delilah, who is definately the apple of her Mum and Dads eye



in this layout i have used this die:-

Tim Holtz - Mover/shaper - magnetic Mini Bird and Birdcage

and along with these other goodies:-
Kaisercraft - Flowers - Coconut
Kaisercraft - Flowers - Pink
Prima - Jack and Jill - Sugar Skies paper
Prima - Vine

I have not used these 3 following words but used the "DREAM" one instead, these are just to show the ones that are available at present in the shop.
Tim Holtz - Mover/Shaper - Friends
Tim Holtz - Mover/Shaper - Imagine
Tim Holtz - Mover/Shaper - Journey

and another Layout - This one was used for Tanya's Sketch challenge



and some of the goodies used in this one were:-

Tim Holtz - Hardware Findings
Tim Holtz - Mover/Shapers - Magnetic - Bird and Birdcage

along with
Kaisercraft - Paper Blooms - Olive
Pink Paisley - Butterfly Garden - Nature Sanctuary

Thanks for looking at these layouts I hope they might give you a little inspiration on different ways to use the products, but keep watch for more of Tim Goodies to appear in the shop.....

Robbi

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Step by Step - Altering a Picture Frame

Hi everyone,

I had some cute 5 x 3.5 inches white photo frames that I inherited from my sister. They had a couple of chips in the wood but I thought they would be a perfect size to do a little project for Taylor's room.

These were the frames in their original state. I quite liked the cute little trees that came with them!! Shame they had to go.



First I prepped the outside of the frames by giving them a little sand with a piece of sandpaper - mostly to smooth out the little chips to give a more even finish. Next I gave them a small sponge of white paint to ensure that the glimmermist would stick a bit better to the white frames. You could use white gesso which is a primer for this job but white paint works just as well if you have it lying around. The misting may have worked without this step but I wanted to ensure the mist would run as little as possible. After painting the frames, I used a piece of scrap paper and placed it over the glass to protect it from the treatment I was about to give the frame!



Next, it got a bit messy. I decided I wanted to use my Prima leaves mask as it is just DEVINE!! so I held it onto the frame and sprayed away. I was a bit impatient but I would recommend waiting for the mist to dry a bit before moving on to the other sides of the frame. This was the result...



Once all the sides were done and dry (I used my heat tool to help speed up the process here), I added Tim Holtz Rock Candy Crackle Paint to the frame to antique it a bit.



I then went and created two little picture layouts. The first one is placed under the glass. I used a piece of my left over Prima to create the 5 x 3.5" background, added a cute mat for the photo, some Cosmo Cricket Butterflies and my MS Doily Punch. The second one I created on top of the glass as I wanted it to be more dimensional.


Products used: Prima Fairy Flora, Prima Alphas, Dusty Attic Chipboard Fence, Prima Butterfly, Cosmo Cricket Butterflies, Tim Holtz Rock Candy Crackle Paint, Misc Buttons, Mini Alphas, Pink Glimmermist Prima Leaves Mask

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May 1st - Fort nightly challenge

Hi Ladies,

Welcome to the first challenge for May 2011. The theme this month is "Along the Lines", so think lines on your pages, stripes, lots of horizontal, diagonal, vertical lines on your pages.

Remember that there are 3 challenges per month- the sketch challenge, todays recipe challenge- and on the 15th the third challenge-

Remember to be in to win the gorgeous RAK from Adrienne at Scrappin Patch you need to enter at least 2 of the 3 challenges and you also get the chance to shine in the SPOTLIGHT. You will be interviewed by Hannah and your interview and examples of your creations will be posted on the forum so that we can all get to know you and your fabulous work.

Okay the recipe for this month is

1 patterned paper that must have lines on it- it can be striped or journalling lines- you could paint lines whatever you like
Chipboard
Ink or Glimmermist
Butterflies
Journalling tag using lines

Easy peasy this month! I am looking forward to seeing your creations in the gallery...

Here is my example layout



Products Used

Prima Reflections Collection- Meadowlark
Reflections Journal Notecards
Reflections Journal Stickers
Prima - Alphabets- Brown
Prima Flowers- Reflections
Kaisercraft Chipboard Gates
Pinecone Ink
Kaisercraft Crochet Doily

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Mum's Muffin Recipe!!!

SUNFILLED MUFFINS
200gr oranges peeled (you can include some peel if you choose but Mum doesn't)
1C sugar
.5C milk
1 large egg
50gr melted butter
1.5C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
.5C sultana or dates or walnuts or almonds (Mum uses almonds)

METHOD
Cut oranges into wedges and process with sugar until finely chopped. Add egg, milk, and btter and blend. Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add orange mixture and fruit/nuts. Mix LIGHTLY. [b]DO NOT OVERMIX[/b]

Bake at 200oC in lightly greased muffin tins for 12 - 15 minutes or 9 - 10 minutes for mini muffins. Leave in tins for a few minutes, then tip onto a rack to cool.

OPTIONAL
Dust with icing sugar or split and fill with cream.

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Inspiration Wednesday with Francine

Welcome to Inspiration Wednesday- todays inspiration is of course to inspire you to create some lovely Valentines layouts for the partner in your life. This week Adrienne gave me some My Minds Eye- State of Play papers which were very lovey dovey in muted reds and pinks and come with a diecut sheet which makes it easy to embellish your page with matching embellies.

Here is the layout i created using this line



I have had a big diecut heart shape in my stash since i first started scrapbooking years ago so thought that i would drag that out to use on this layout of my husband. i traced round the shape onto one of the papers in the range since my red diecut was too bright for the papers. Lots of inking around all the distressed edges to give a more masculine feel as well. i used some calico and ruched it up abit with some plain swirly stick on ribbon to look more masculine as well.

i made an envelope out of my scraps to write all my journalling in so that stays private!! A great idea for layouts where you want to Add heartfelt journalling that only you can open and read. Of course my layout woudn't be complete with out some flowery embellishments somewhere so i added this prima vine rather than flowers.

Why not make a layout of your loved one? It's easy to forget the partners- since most of our pages tend to be focussed on our adorable children!


I hope that this will inspire you to have a go and i hope to see some amazing layouts in the gallery coming up to Valentines Day on the 14th February.

Francine

Products Used

State of the Heart- Accessory Sheet
Full of Love paper
Love Meter
Sweet Nothings
Prima Valentine Vine - Red
Calico
Ribbon
Prima Red Alphabet stickers

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In the Spotlight

It's time to explain how the "Spotlight Patch" will work.

Anyone who enters ALL THREE CHALLENGES during the month (i.e. the monthly sketch challenge posted on the first Saturday of the month, and the 2 fortnightly challenges posted on the 1st and 15th of the month) will be eligible to be chosen for the SPOTLIGHT!

I will be choosing the person who will be in the spotlight each month. I will contact that person with a list of "get to know you" type questions. The answers to those questions, along with the layouts/OTPs that the person created for the 3 challenges, will then be featured on our site, on the blog, and in the newsletter.

In addition, I will be asking the lucky person to choose a sketch and to create a layout based on the sketch. This sketch, and the layout, will be posted around the middle of the following month as a "Weekend Challenge" (there will be no RAK for this one, it's just for fun).

I hope that all sounds good, and has inspired you to enter ALL of our challenges each month so that you are in to win!

We would love to see as many of you as possible "in the spotlight" this year. It's a great way to build up your confidence, try some new things, get your work noticed, inspire others, and most of all, have FUN!

The first person to be in the "Spotlight Patch" will be announced on or around the 6th of March.

Stay Tuned
Hannah

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February Sketch Challenge - Handmade with Love

Hi Ladies,
Welcome back to the challenges on the forum.

On the first Saturday of the month there will be a sketch challenge put up by one of the design team members. To be in the draw for the RAk and a chance to be the Designer in the Spotlight you need to enter all 3 challenges for the month. YOu have till the end of the month to upload your creations here to be in to win....

This months sketch is a Pagemaps one from October 2010 but thought that since its Valentines Day soon and the month of love that this sketch with all its hearts would be perfect... If you haven't checked out Pagemaps yet please visit their site on www.pagemaps.com ......... they have monthly sketches for 12 by 12 and double layouts and 8 by 11 sketches too.

With out further ado here is the sketch for this month... remember to keep in theme for this month- handmade with love...

And here is my version of this sketch- with sewing - a miracle for me- it really is handmade with love for me to attempt sewing!!

look forward to seeing your creations
Francine

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Wednesday Inspiration with Robbi

Well Hello Ladies welcome to our new and exciting Inspiration for 2011
firstly we have for you a couple from the Basic Grey - Hopscotch Line

This 1st sample is a very simple layout for you and could be adapted to turn on its side and have
4 photos going longways down the page, the good thing with a simple layout like this is that they look good as they are or you can keep going and "Robbi" them as you will see in the 2nd sample....



and here is the "Robbi-ed" Layout



Goodies used to create these layouts:-

Basic Grey - Hopscotch - Sidewalk Chalk
Basic Grey - Hopscotch - Suede Brown Medium Cardstock
Basic Grey - Wheat Cardstock
Websters Pages - Wonderfall - Trim Pack
Tim Holtz - Ornate Plates
Prima - Mini Roses - Fuschia Pink
Prima - Fairytale Roses - French White
Prima - Blossom Branches - Walnut
Prima - SIIP - Cream
Prima - Crystals/Pearls Platinum
7 Gypsies - 97% Complete Tags - Paddington
Tim Holtz - Hitch Fasteners
Prima - Jewel Box Princess Flower 531669
Prima - Tea Roses - Latte 537487
Misc - Lace, Chain, buttons, ribbon, metal butterfly, ribbed cardboard, sepia ink

I hope these 2 layouts have given you some inspiration and just remember create layouts that reflect you and the photo-(s) you are using, sometimes overdoing a layout just because you can doesn't make it a good layout, sometimes the right photo and papers are enough, the minimalistic look is always clean and tidy and not too much for the eye to take in......
Thanks for looking
Robbi

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Fortnightly Challenge - Ending 14th February

Well as promised we have changed the challenges for you this year, and our very first THEME is HANDMADE WITH LOVE, as February is Valentines we thought we would do something "lovey dovey". All the challenges this month will have something to do with this theme, but with a twist as there will be different elements to that challenge.

My challenge for you is a RECEIPE CHALLENGE, create a layout using pastel shades / hearts / twill or sewing / one photo / making your own embellishment.

Both Robbi and I have used the same range of papers from Basic Grey - the brand new HOPSKOTCH

Robbi has made her own tags as well as a TIM HOLTZ Flower.... I just love that FLOWER which Robbi has created, its just fabulous



Goodies Used were:-
BG Hopscotch - Jump Rope
BG Hopscotch - Potsy
Prima - Songbird Vine Pink - 539054
Misc - Lace, metals, button, ribbon
Hearts - 2 x metal hearts
Sewing - down edges
1 x Photo - Miss Emma
Handmade Embellies - Tags and Tim Holtz Flower

and here is my take on the challenge,



Goodies used
Bazzill Pinecone
Kick the Can PP
Skipping PP
Passing Notes
Hopskotch Ribbon Doillies
Pink Paislee Expressions Alpha Stickers - Ocean
[Basic Grey Pink Alpha stickers
Green Tara Brown / Taupe Flower 4cm

I created a little envelope using the diecut sheet from the Teresa Collins Noel range - I traced it onto the Basic Grey paper and then cut it out, as well as cutting some of the hearts from the Passing Notes PP, popped on a tag and a flower and there you go, your own handmade embellishment.

Upload your layout by the 14th February in the new gallery.

Remember you need to enter both fortnightly challenges for the month to be in to WIN the RAK from the shop.

HAPPY SCRAPPING

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Technique Tuesday Returns!!!

Hi Ladies and welcome back to the Scrappin Patch challenges for 2011. We have lots of new things happening this year that will hopefully inspire you to try some new techniques and challenges!

This year Technique Tuesday will be slightly different - it will run fortnightly in line with the fortnightly challenges and there will be 2 different aspects to the technique Tuesdays. Technique Tuesday will run along similiar lines as last year where one of the design team will share a technique for you to try. The following fortnight a design team member will be posting a step by step technique based layout for you to try - with full instructions for the whole layout. This way you will be able to see how to do the technique and create a layout using some new techniques. We hope that you will enjoy this new feature - any feedback is always welcome!

This week i wanted to show you how you can really add some dimension and interest to your page by adding accordion style paper ruching to your pages. Its a technique that i use alot on my pages to give interest and dimension and is really easy to do!

Firstly i cut strips of cardstock or paper about 3cm wide and then using my Martha Stewart lace punch i punch along one side. So it looks like this....

Then i fold about every third scallop piece back over like this...

Then using double sided tape i carefully place the pieces around the shape that i am using.

These are some examples of layouts where i have used this technique.

and using a circle shape

and a bracket shape


Give it a go and see how easy it is to give your pages a lift!

Happy Scrapping
Francine

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